Missy Elliott Has Always Been A Time Traveler
As contemporary artists continue to sample her futuristic sound, Missy’s influence on the culture keeps growing.
Sampling in modern hip-hop has been a point of contention, with some rap fans feeling the samples are either too obvious, not flipped enough, or not different enough from the source material. That argument is pretty tired, as sampling will always have its place in the genre and was key to its growth, it brings the songs of yesterday back to the forefront. Missy Elliott, whose music always sounded like it was from another galaxy, is the latest artist to get one of her biggest singles reworked by a new generation of rappers.
When it dropped in 1999, the single “She’s A Bitch” was unusual for its time. The Timbaland-produced beat sounded like an alarm on a spaceship, Missy’s head and hair were covered in jet-black prosthetic skin in the video, and the song had “bitch” in the hook of a rap single, long before that was the norm. It wasn’t a huge hit, but it was the debut single on Missy’s 1999 sophomore album, Da Real World, which went platinum. The song would go on to resonate about 20 years later, courtesy of sampling.
In 2017, South Florida rapper Ski Mask The Slump God caught a viral hit with “Catch Me Outside,” where he raps over the “She’s A Bitch” instrumental. A skilled technician with a ton of flows, Ski Mask took the beat wherever he wanted it to go, and blew up in the process. Ski Mask pretty much became known for this song and got the push into the mainstream that he needed in his then-young career.
Just a few years later in 2023, Boston’s own Bia sampled “She’s A Bitch” and called it “I’m That Bitch,” with Timbaland, SkipOnDaBeat, and Lil Rich on the boards. The song sounds like a sped-up, drill remix of the original song, and Bia raps on it with one of her faster flows.
The most recent sample of “She’s A Bitch,” might be the most successful one. Cardi B, who has a long history of hit singles and hasn’t released an album since 2018, jumped back on the scene with “Like What (Freestyle).” Rapping over a slightly modified version of Timbaland’s beat (tweaked by Sean Island, DJ SwanQo, OctaneThisThatGas and Lateef the Truthspeaker), Cardi sends shots at all of her faceless competitors. Missy’s song having this kind of longevity is a testament to who she is and proves that her futuristic sound reaches further than anyone could have imagined.
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